


Matchmaking (Ablaze)

by Inkyrius



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Background FRobin/Olivia, Background Maribelle/Lissa, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Matchmaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 03:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13673637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkyrius/pseuds/Inkyrius
Summary: Inigo and Owain are a pair of oblivious idiots, and their families are getting tired of it.





	Matchmaking (Ablaze)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowysatoru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowysatoru/gifts).



Brady was probably the person most equipped to deal with his brother’s antics, past or present. He had the benefit of knowing which books and shaped Owain’s vocabulary and sense of drama. More generally, he had spent most of his life around Owain, and so knew him very well. Even when Brady didn’t understand what Owain was saying, he generally had a good idea of what he meant. Once you got past all the melodramatic speeches, Owain was a pretty straightforward guy.

All of this was to say that when Brady realized that Owain was in love, he was pretty confident in his conclusion. Not that Owain was being particularly subtle. He hadn’t come out and admitted it, but his ramblings about heroes of the past had taken on a distinctly romantic tone. If Brady had to hear about the valiant lords Hector and Eliwood and their epic courtship one more time…

Still, he was willing to ignore it. It wouldn’t be the first time Owain had seized upon a new source of inspiration and bugged Brady with it. He could cope.

He was forced to reconsider this plan when Lucina approached him about it. He was organizing Elixirs in the medical tent at the time, and when she greeted him he nearly knocked them off the shelf in surprise. “Yeesh,” he muttered. “Hey, Lucina. You need something?”

“Well…” Lucina began. “Have you noticed Owain acting strange lately?”

Brady barked a laugh. This must be more serious than he thought, if even Lucina had noticed. “He’s just being dense,” he said. “He’s managed to fall in love without realizing it.”

“I see.” Lucina sounded relieved. Brady couldn’t help but wonder what sorts of situations she’d been imagining. “Do you know who he’s in love with?”

That was more in line with what he’d expect from her. He loved his cousin, but she wasn’t exactly Old Hubba when it came to seeing interpersonal relationships. “Seeing as we just met up with Inigo a few weeks ago, and he’s been like this since then, I think I can make a guess.”

Lucina paused to consider the idea. “I suppose that makes sense. They’ve always been close, and they seem to be spending a lot of time together lately.”

“Yeah, I figure that getting split up by the portal probably sparked it. Absence making the heart get sappy or whatever.”

“Hmm.” Lucina still looked faintly troubled. “Do you think we should intervene? I don’t want Owain distracted on the battlefield.”

“Nah,” Brady said. “If nothing else, I’d want to give him some advance warning before getting into his business like that. Not that I expect him to do anything about it, but he deserves a chance.”

“If you say so.” Lucina did not seem totally convinced by this plan. Which was fair, since Brady didn’t really expect Owain to work things out on his own either. But he did deserve the opportunity to prove them wrong.

As long as he stopped going on about the “epic love stories of yore”. If he didn’t, Brady would strangle him before he could even think about making a move.

* * *

Robin cleared the table in the barracks and set out a map. It had become something of a ritual for her to meet up with Morgan after each battle to review and plan. It was a convenient way for Robin to check in with her son and make sure he wasn’t hurt, and it let him learn from real-life situations without putting anyone at risk. He was also remarkably good at pinpointing her weak points.

She set out some objects to use as troop markers –quills for pegasus knights, a rock for an armored knight, that sort of thing. She and Morgan normally started by analyzing the larger movements of battle, and for that, it helped to have some way to visualize things.

But when Morgan finally came in, he looked preoccupied by something. “What’s up?” Robin asked.

Morgan frowned. “This is the third battle in a row that you’ve sent Inigo and Owain off together. They’re both swordsmen, so if an enemy snuck up on them with a lance, they’d be in trouble. Wouldn’t it make more sense to split them up?”

Robin sighed. She should have known that her matchmaking efforts would be noticed eventually. At least, judging by the children they kept picking up, she’d been doing a good job with it. “Maybe, but they’re both very skilled, and I have faith in them.” She hesitated, but Morgan might as well know. “More importantly, and don’t tell your brother I said this, I’ve seen the way he looks at Owain. Inigo’s enough of a show-off that he’ll put in the extra effort to catch Owain’s attention.”

Morgan’s eyes widened. “Wow. I’d noticed that Inigo was interested in Owain, but to account for that in your tactics? That’s amazing.”

Robin shrugged. “Given the number of couples in this army, it’d be more surprising if I didn’t consider that sort of thing. People fight better when they’re protecting someone they love.”

“Is that how you and Mom got together?” Morgan asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Robin said primly. “I just made the best strategical moves at the time. If those happened to involve a beautiful woman dancing just for me, I’m sure that was incidental.”

Morgan laughed. “So if we really want to help Inigo, should we make him dance for Owain?”

“We’ll see,” Robin said. “But we can talk about that later. Right now, we have a battle to discuss.”

“Oh, right!” Morgan leaned over the map. “Okay, so when the pegasus knights came down from the mountains…”

* * *

Inigo made his way to the mess tent, humming to himself. He had cooking duty today, and while it wasn’t his favorite of chores, there was something to be said for knowing there was always enough food to go around.

He lifted the flap to enter and froze mid-hum. Owain was already inside, looking at the supplies and muttering to himself.

Ordinarily, Inigo wouldn’t mind sharing a shift with Owain. He enjoyed Owain’s company, even if he rarely admitted it to his face. His smiles always came easier when Owain was around. Lately, Owain had become the first person Inigo sought out when he was feeling down.

All of this in a strictly platonic sense, as Inigo reminded himself whenever he thought about it for too long. No point in making things awkward.

But as much as he platonically loved Owain, this was the fourth chore rotation in a row that they’d been paired up. It was getting to be a bit much.

It was too late to change it, though, so he walked in as if nothing was amiss. “I see you’ve already gotten to work,” he said. “Do you have anything in particular in mind today?”

Owain spun around dramatically. “I believe that, in order to spur our esteemed allies to glorious victory, something sustaining will be necessary. Maybe a stew?”

“That works,” Inigo said. He grabbed a bag of assorted vegetables and began chopping them up.

They worked in companionable silence for a while, Inigo preparing ingredients and Owain mixing them into something that would actually taste good. It was a familiar routine. Inigo could feel himself relaxing.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that it took him a moment to realize that the soft violin music wasn’t just his imagination. It was Owain’s puzzled expression that finally clued him in. He was relieved to know that he wasn’t hallucinating, particularly since the music had a distinctly romantic tone to it.

The music kept going, and eventually Inigo put down his knife. “All right, that’s incredibly distracting. Would you mind if I went to see what was going on?”

“I wish you luck on your quest.” Owain didn’t look up from where he was doing something with spices.

Inigo’s question was answered as soon as he took a step outside the tent. Brady was standing right there, playing the violin as if this was a perfectly normal state of affairs. “What are you doing?” Inigo asked.

Brady stopped playing to give him a look, or maybe that was just how his face looked. “What does it look like? I’m practicing violin.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Inigo said. “Is there any particular reason you’re doing it in the middle of camp?”

Brady shrugged with the shoulder that wasn’t supporting a violin. “I just felt like it. Is that not allowed?”

“Well, we are trying to make lunch right now, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

“What, because you need total silence to make a sandwich?” Brady snorted. “Look, I don’t interrupt your dance practice, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t interrupt me now.”

“I – that’s…” Inigo fumbled for words, painfully aware of the heat rising in his cheeks. Had Brady really seen him without him noticing? When? Oh gods, what if it was when he first started practicing those Plegian dances and had no idea what he was doing. He’d probably looked like a complete idiot.

“Fine,” he said at last. “Just – please don’t tell anyone what you saw.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Brady turned his attention back to his violin, and Inigo made a dignified retreat back into the mess tent. The music started back up again a moment later.

“It’s just Brady,” Inigo announced, hoping to forestall any questions.

Owain visibly went through the five stages of grief in front of Inigo’s eyes. It was honestly rather impressive. “I’m so sorry about my brother. His motivations are good, but he still has a lot to learn about honor, virtue, and staying out of others people’s business.”

Inigo had no idea what could have prompted that sort of reaction. “What?”

Owain grumbled something to himself. Before Inigo could ask him to repeat himself, Owain sighed. “Look, for whatever reason, he’s decided that I’m in love with you and that he needs to hook us up. I’m sorry. If it makes you uncomfortable, I can handle the rest of this myself.”

“Um. Wow.” Inigo firmly avoided thinking about the implications of that, for the sake of his sanity. He was just going to focus on Owain’s part in this, which was the unfortunate bystander. “You’re fine. It’s not like this was your idea.” A thought occurred to him. “But how’d he know we’d both be here? I don’t think I told anyone I had kitchen duty today.”

“We have been paired up a lot lately. Maybe he just made a lucky guess?”

Inigo hummed thoughtfully. This seemed too convenient to be mere coincidence. Unbidden, the image of his mom poring over chore rotations sprung into his mind. She had seemed more engrossed in them recently. And maybe he was jumping to conclusions, but he wouldn’t put it past her to do some subtle matchmaking of her own. “Or maybe my mom’s in on it too. That would explain why we keep getting paired up for battles, too.”

Owain opened his mouth, then closed it again. “She would,” he settled for saying.

“I know, and I’m so sorry.” Inigo focused all of his attention on the vegetables to avoid looking at Owain’s face. “I mean, why is everyone assuming we’d make a good couple?”

There was a pause, long enough that Inigo assumed Owain was going to drop the topic altogether. Then he said, “Is it really so outlandish?”

Inigo’s hundreds of suppressed fantasies would say otherwise, but there was no way he was going to tell Owain that. Not that he was coming up with anything better. He took long enough trying to come up with something that Owain hurried to add, “No, you’re right. I’ll go talk to Brady and make him stop.”

“Wait!” Inigo said, far too quickly. Owain stared at him. It would be a fantastic time for the ground to swallow him up, he thought. But it didn’t, and he had to try to continue with this conversation without driving Owain off. “I mean, uh. I guess not? I just, I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Of course not,” Owain said. “It would be the first time your lame pick-up lines succeeded on anyone.”

Inigo frowned. “Are you really insulting me in the middle of asking me out?”

“You make it way too easy. And to be fair, I haven’t asked anything yet.” Owain shook his head. “But you’re right, I should do this properly. Inigo, you’re the only person who could tame both my sword hand and my heart. If you would do me the honor of joining your life with mine, then like the legendary princes Ephraim and Innes, I am confident we could conquer any obstacle with our love.” He held out his hand dramatically.

That was the final straw for Inigo, who burst out laughing. “Oh gods, that may have been worse than the insult.”

“Hey! I was trying to be romantic, and this is what I get?”

Inigo fought to calm down. “You have a lot to learn about romance.”

Owain’s expression went from offended to smug. Inigo had just enough time to worry about what was coming next before Owain said, “Well, I have the perfect teacher for it right in front of me.”

Dammit, it wasn’t fair that Owain could make Inigo blush right after saying something so dorky and melodramatic. “So you finally admit that my flirting isn’t as terrible as everyone says?”

“Don’t push it.” Owain looked like he was about to say something else, only to look up in confusion instead. "Wait, do you smell smoke?"

Inigo looked around Owain to the cooking fire, which had spread to the nearby tables and was now just a fire. He ran over in a panic and began stomping at it as best he could. Owain came over a minute later with a bucket of water.

They looked down at the charred table and soggy mess of former stew. "Well," Inigo said. "That could have gone better."

Owain nodded. "We've been charged with providing sustenance, and we can't abandon that most sacred of missions. We’ll have to continue our conversation after lunch.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Inigo said. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was just as happy for the break. He needed a chance to wrap his brain around the idea that he might be in the process of acquiring a boyfriend. And that boyfriend was Owain, even. Not even their brush with disaster could kill his good mood.

He risked another glance up and saw that Owain was seasoning the meat at lightning speed. Inigo picked up his own pace while chopping. Some time to think was good, but he wasn’t going to let some stupid vegetables keep him from his new boyfriend.

 


End file.
